Ibexx & all, "Office 9".
infoworld.com
By Bob Trott and Ed Scannell
InfoWorld Electric
Posted at 7:01 PM PT, Feb 10, 1998
Microsoft hopes to release by year's end
the next version of its Office desktop
applications suite, now called Office 9,
which will be designed to enhance server-side
capabilities and boast closer ties to Windows NT.
Office 9 will let IT managers use the Active
Directory promised in NT 5.0 -- which has
no certain release date -- to automate
upgrades. Distribution of components -- and
individual features of the components, which
also will be accessible on demand from the
server -- is the key to the new version, a Microsoft
official said.
"In the new version, you can download components
on demand," said group product
manager Kirstin Larson. "The goal is to
make Office attack the bloatware issue."
"The block feature in Access doesn't have
to be given to a client," Larson said. "However,
in the old days if you wanted to give it
to them, you would have to go into setup to reinstall
that feature. Now, the user can click on
the block feature and if he didn't have it, it would
be downloaded to him. Currently, you can
block a feature from a desktop, but you need to
reinstall it; [in the new version] you don't."
The company plans to release a limited beta
of Office 9 in the second quarter, a source
close to the company said. Microsoft's
goal is to deliver the upgrade by year's end, said
Andrew Dixon, Office product manager.
Office 9 also will include support for
the Extensible Markup Language.
Microsoft is looking beyond Office 9 --
officials recently demonstrated Office
technology that focused on Web collaboration.
"Microsoft will offer capabilities to let
users create virtual work groups and discussions on
Web sites," said one source familiar with
Microsoft's long-term goals. "That is not
going to happen in Office 9. That is much further out." |
